Is it REALLY October?

Beautiful colored leaves drifting slowly from the trees to piles on the ground. A chill in the air requiring a sweater in the morning. Pumpkins for sale in all the stores.

In San Antonio we have one out of 3! The only "color" in our leaves is brown and a sweater is someone who goes out in the afternoon for a walk. Wait a minute & you'll get that. LOL!

My calendar tells me it's October, though, so I guess it is. I had a goal to be finished with ALL fall themed quilted/sewn items by the end of September to list on Etsy. I didn't make that deadline, so I've set a new one for October 15th. What isn't finished by then will wait til next summer when I will get things finished for the following end of September!

So far I have 2 items completed. Here are sneak peaks of those:

Please ignore any resemblance of a messy house around this table runner. Who knows what glimpses into our lives you might find there!

These pictures were before I added binding to the quilts. Those are completely finished and ready for me to photograph and list for sale.

I'm also working on a few turkey items. Some wall hangings & pillow covers. I decided to turn some of the projects into reusable slip covers for pillows because it seems silly to buy a new pillow for each season. By having changeable covers, you can make your home seasonal year round and save on storage space.

As soon as I hit my deadline OR finish the projects (whichever comes first), I will be working on Christmas items, both seasonal and gift related.

Some of you have asked if I would make some of the duffel bags like the ones I made Natalie:

YES! I have purchased several pieces of fabric to make some for selling on Etsy. I'll get there! : )

We've been told it COULD be getting cooler this weekend, with a high of 66. A friend asked if the numbers were just upside down! LOL! Hopefully it will FEEL like fall is here for a day. Though, I know that in Texas if you stick around long enough, it will be hot again.

Have a GREAT day and thanks for stopping by!

Our Cutie-Patooty 2 year old

My great niece Karis turned 2 last week. She is such a fun little girl. As her grandma said, "I thought Becky (Karis' mom) was intense as a child. Karis has her beat hands down!" She is a 100% kind of kid. She laughs with 100% of her body. She loves with 100% of her tenderness. She gets mad with 100% of her anger. I would say it's all or nothing with her, but it's always ALL! And she SO reminds me of my Natalie at that age. That is exactly how we described her. But Karis is her own person and not Natalie, Becky or anyone else. Every little curl of hair and sparkle in her eye is 100% Karis!

For her birthday I made her a matching dress and baby doll dress. I only got a picture of her dress. My niece-in-law Katie made the cutest tutu with matching wand and headband to look like Abby from Sesame Street. I've never seen Abby, but somehow my 13 year old knows about her. What does that child do when I'm asleep?

 Darling tutu by Katie! I told her to start an Etsy shop! See the bump in Becky's tummy? That's Moriah, my 4th great niece, due in January!

If you look closely, this side is a tiny bit different. There are buttons on the belt! 

Thanks to Becky and Natalie (aka Mini-Becky #1) for holding the dress. Not professional pics, but I think you get the idea of how cute little girl clothes are with these shots!

Happy Birthday Karis! We can't wait to see all the Lord has in store for you!

A Purse for Prison

A friend of mine, a minister's wife, needed a new bag to take to prison. Yes, it is true. I MIGHT be leaving out some details, though. She and her husband were taking a trip to California and going to tour Alcatraz. She MIGHT also do Prison ministry, as my niece does, so who knows, maybe the bag will be going to prison again.

She saw THIS purse on my Etsy site and liked the style, but wanted it bigger and in different colors:

She told me some of the shades she liked and we searched online (we live in different states) to find fabrics that reflected her style. That is part of the fun of making custom bags. While I would make all bags in bright fabrics and/or florals, not everyone likes that. This way I can design something to fit someone's tastes and it is one of a kind!

She also wanted a make-up bag and a mini bag to use as a coin purse. Here are the final products. My daughter is modeling the big bag.

Power cords and remote control not included in purchase. LOL!

Would you like a personalized Loribelle bag? Contact me!

It's a Small World

A friend of mine ordered some Barbie clothes from me. That is, she asked me if I made Barbie clothes, and if she could send me some money to make some. I said, "Not if I don't have to" to the first question and "SURE" to the second one! Barbie is a small character. She's very small. Her clothes are very small. very very small

I was happy to do this, but got so caught up in what to make that it took me awhile to do this. I finished all but one dress that I still need to make. I had another outfit cut out, but my daughter & I both looked at it & decided it was UGLY fabric so I am tossing that one into the scrap bag. 

Here are the outfits that I sent. By the way, the "ugly" pants & shorts are for Ken. Men just don't get the pretty things. Except for Barbie. 

The following week I made an outfit for my precious great niece who turned 2 last week. I made her a matching doll outfit as well. You may think that sewing for a 2 year old means lots of little pieces. I am here to tell you that after working on very small clothes for Barbie, I felt like I was sewing for a giant rather than a 2 year old! Now I am cutting out some things for me as well as altering a pair of pj pants that didn't fit well that I made. Those clothes REALLY feel like they are for giants! I will post pictures of those when I have them all done. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog!  

Cute-o-meter is on the rise!

Cute, yes? A birthday gift for my oldest great niece, Emery. She is 3 years old today! Aunt Lori the Great (I gave myself a great aunt name, like a Grandma name) is ever so slow at getting things done. Emery's quilt from last year still hasn't been quilted. I waited until today to decide what to make and bought fabric and trimmings today. I actually made this apron & hat in about 2 hours from start to finish! It does cause the cute-o-meter to rise, but tomorrow when Emery and her 3 cousins are together (all girls so far, ages almost 2, 7 months and 3 months), the cute-o-meter might just break with cuteness!

 Look! It's reversible!

 Matching Chef's Hat

 It looks big, so I added some ribbon that can be tied tighter to make the hat fit better. Yes, I am hoping to have another family member who loves to cook!

Hopefully will have time to update with more fun things I'm working on soon. Just had to share this! I'll take pictures tomorrow and share those!

Thanks for stopping by!

Is Mauve the New Avocado?

If you are a child of the 70's, you very likely had a kitchen with colors like this:

(used from the Charming Zebra website found HERE)

OR this:

(found at THIS website)

Or, as "Miss Charming" from the Charming Zebra site says, "There was a time when everyone had either brown, orange or harvest gold appliances. They were very stylish at the time--not so much now." 

We had harvest gold, but LOTS of decor in orange & brown. I'd forgotten that til I read Miss Charming's comment. I think I might be a bit nauseous now.

I thought we had moved past all these colors until a few years ago when I was at a Pampered Chef Leadership conference (back when I was a director, before I stopped being a consultant and then started again). They showed us this new "fun color cutlery line." FUN color. FUN???? See for yourself:

It is NOT a fun color, in my most humble opinion, however it IS a very sharp knife (and you can order one from me if you'd like!). I have scars to prove how sharp it is. I have a former host of PC shows who can also tell you how sharp it is. The first time I did a show at her house I caught my oven mitt on fire. The next time I sliced my finger open. She had to leave the room so she didn't see it while a former Army Medic, who happened to be at the show, bandaged me and I told someone how to make dessert! Clearly, there is NOTHING fun involved with something this color. 

Now, the next decade brought different shades. If you survived the 80's, you know the colors I'm about to mention. Country blue and.....everyone say it in unison...mauve! I'm pretty sure I had 2 mauve bridesmaid dresses. My wedding also had shades of blue & a rosy pink that were similar to country blue & mauve, but brighter. The country shades were just a tad to grey for me. And those of us who were children in the 70's and grew into young adulthood in the 80's vowed we would NEVER have harvest gold or avocado green (or brown with orange for that matter) in our homes.

Most of us who married and had kids in the 80's & 90's now have kids moving into adulthood or already there. What I want to know is this: Do kids of the 80's & 90's detest country blue and mauve as much as we detested harvest gold (not just any gold, of course) and avocado green? And did our parents vow to never use turquoise or pale pink in their homes? 

I stumbled onto this fantastic website with all kinds of color schemes called Color Schemer (click on it to get there). When I searched for 40's colors this page came up. I kind of like the colors there. By the way, what a cool site for anyone wanting to see colors put together for home decor, quilting, stamping, scrapbooking, or even cake decorating. 

What colors do you think will be the "harvest gold" or "mauve" of the future? I guess only time will tell.

Bells will be ringing

Wedding bells will be ringing, not for me, though! 22.5 years ago that happened. A dear friend's daughter is getting married and I was asked to make the dress. I'll show pictures after the wedding. It's a "hippie-boho" style (or so says the picture she showed me that we are recreating). I wouldn't call it hippie and I'm not sure what boho is, but there are no sparkles and it's almost all cotton! It's a fitted dress and let's just say she has shape. Dolly Parton-esque, you might say.

That's my project to finish this week. She's out of town and comes home Thursday, then leaves on the 19th for the wedding location----England! They will live there & he is English. Needless to say my needles will be flying before she does, so no blogging til this is done.

Ta-ta for now!

Oh, Cherry, Oh!

My 3rd entry for the Moda Sliced Contest. You can see all entries HERE. Not feeling well today so I'm just going to upload pics. Details will follow another day.

Moda Sliced Contest

Moda Bake Shop is holding a competition. The "auditions" for the competition are this month and can be seen HERE. I have 2 entries completed and hope to finish one more before the 29th. Between selling Girl Scout cookies, planning a wedding dress I am making for a friend's daughter, and homeschooling, we'll see if I get the 3rd one done!

For the auditions, the rules were to use precut fabrics from Moda, a buckle, batting and create an item for an office or studio. Also, any additional fabric must be Moda fabric. For both of these projects I used Prairie Paisley 2 charm packs. Other info is with each project.

Project 1: Wall Organizer.

Wall Organizer

Clear pockets on top piece hold patterns, etc. Corkboard behind allows things to be pinned on. Striped Texas is a needle holder. Paisley Texas is a pin cushion. Pockets hold smaller items.

 

Second set has ribbons to hold papers. Bottom section is a scissors holder. Maybe now I can keep up with my scissors! 

In the center is the Heart of Texas!

Materials used:

• Prairie Paisley 2 charm packs
• Bella Solid Fig Tree Cream 9900-67
• Clear Vinyl
• Grossgrain ribbon
• Plaid ribbon
• Overall Buckles
• Corkboards
• Thin polyester batting
• Fiberfill
• Jeans Buttons

Project 2: Cushion for chair

The Buckle conceals the zipper underneath.

Cushion Back

Materials used:

• Prairie Paisley 2 charm packs
• Bella Solid Fig Tree Cream 9900-67
• Bella Solid Christmas Red
• Cotton Batting
• Zipper
• Grossgrain Ribbon
• Metal Buckle
• Foam Cushion

Thanks for stopping by!

Sweethearts

Sweet Toddler Karis

Sweet baby Kynleigh

Couldn't you just eat them up? I didn't even notice the skirts because these girls are so sparkling beautiful! Note Karis' jewels in her hand. She is my niece's daughter. Baby Kynleigh is my almost niece's (niece-in-law's sister) baby. Can't wait to see Big Girl Emery in her skirt. I see more skirts in the future!

Valentine's Day Wall Hanging

Here are the details about the Valentine's Day Wall Hanging I recently made:
I used the basic idea of the wall hanging from Missouri Star Quilt Company in THIS VIDEO on Youtube. Jenny used charm packs for her darling quilt. I decided to cut my own squares since I didn't have a cute charm pack for Valentine's, but I DID have Valentine's fabric. I used my Sizzix Bigz XL 5" square cutting die, but you could cut them with your rotary cutter and ruler. When it came to the border, I wanted the word "LOVE" to show, and didn't have enough fabric to cut the long strips ensuring the word would show. I fussy cut some strips 5" x 9.5" and sewed those together for the side edges 9 (3 of those pieces). For the top, I also added some corner pieces to add a little contrast.

This was a lot of fun to make and really easy! You just have to make sure you have your triangle pieces turned the right way when you arrange them!

Let me know if you try this one, too!

Twirly Skirt

Pretend you don't see the ugly ironing board cover (yes, I need a new cover AND better pad on it). Now pretend this is hemmed and has elastic in the top. NOW pretend it is being worn by one of these 3:

2 Great-Nieces, 1 I claim as a Great-Niece, and another baby girl on the way! Yes, I have decided it is time to make them all Twirly Skirts! Though, I won't be making a Valentine's skirt for the baby on the way since she's not due til April. Well, that and we thought she was a boy for about a month (bad ultrasound picture). LOL! But these 3 shall have a sweetheart twirly skirt for Valentine's Day from Aunt Lori the Great! : )